Being able to drive a manual transmission is now a lost art. Almost all my cars were stick shift not to mention my motorcycles.
I heard that is the way to theft-proof your car-to have a manual transmission.
Sounds good, but today's emotionally incontinent young thieves would just set the car on fire in frustration!
Except in Europe, Asia, and other places outside North America. All the cars that I have rented in Ireland and Scotland had manual transmissions, although automatic transmissions were available for a premium price. On our last visit to Scotland, the rental agent assumed that as Americans we would prefer an automatic transmission and repeatedly tried to up-sell us from the manual transmission vehicle that we reserved. I responded that "if we wanted to lease an automatic, I would have booked one in the first place." She finally gave up.